Loud & Low 8th Gen Civic - Time to say good bye to her.

[scooter99]

Haven't checked in on this in too long

Dude you are working some magic in here. I've never seen wiring look so nice

Thanks man. Clean wiring is one of my pet peeves! It bugs me to put soo much work in, and then have wires flopped all over the place. Glad you like it.

[scooter99]

Sorry guys, things have come to a grinding halt. I started my new job on Thursday and even though I get off at 2:30, I get home around 3:15 but have been dead. Been a while since I had to get up at 4:30 in the morning.

I did get scolded yesterday though cause of how heavy my trunk is. I took the springs out, recall, so I could do the enclosure and port. Well I haven't gotten the actuator up and running yet with switches. So I get searched when I leave work, it's a prison, and I park inside. Well they said if I don't get it fixed I can't park in there anymore until I do, because the trunk is too heavy to lift daily. Pussies!! Anyway, so tonight and tomorrow I'm going to work on that. Cause it's a 15-20 minute walk to where i work from outside the gate.

So hopefully tomorrow I'll have some update pics.

Just thought I'd let you all know what was going on.

[scooter99]

Ok so I have not been completely stopped here, only too busy to post pictures. So here we go. The latest update.

I had to fix the trunk with my new job, as you can see by the post before. So here's what I did to correct that.

First thing I had to do was do some testing.

Got some pieces together to try out the relays and get things to work. Some did and some didn't but we'll go through that. Got my battery, actuator, piece of plywood for a temp mount, soldering iron and things, a drill, some screws, a heat gun and a soda

Then some wire, heat shrink, relays, barrier strips, connectors, and a slew of other things. The Pink towel adds flavor!

Ok first lets get the relays out and get them attached to the board.

Next the barrier strip was added.

Got some wiring done, yes even my test equipment is soldered. Power to the "ignition switch, ground, and the two leads to the "30" pins on the relays. This will be the up and down connections.

Ignition switch test.

It works! I wired it up so that the led comes on when the switch comes on. These are normally closed type switches. There are 5 pins on the back. The outer pins are + and - for the led halo. Then there's a "C1" (common), an "NC1" (Normally Closed), and an "NO" (Normally open). With the switch in the up or resting position, it's in the NC position. When the button is pressed to the on position (or in), it's in the Normally Open position. For those of you who are thinking of getting these switches, it's not a two pin product. There's some thought that has to go into these. Well for me there was anyway.

So next I added the power for the momentary switches.

Next from the switches, it gets a lead out from the N/O pin to the 86 pin for one direction, and the 85 pin for the other direction. The other 85 and 86 pins, as well as both 87a pins get grounded while both 87 pins get 12v constant (or as I did a switched power to only operate while on). Here's the link for the diagram: http://www.the12volt.com/relays/relaydiagram49.html

Pushing one momentary button, I didn't hook up the led halos on these, the actuator extends.

Pushing the other one, it retracts. NOW, the other 4 relays. I was going to try and turn the momentary switch in to a constant, by using relays (2 per direction). But I don't think the actuators have a cut off on the power when they get to their limit, as well as, I don't think I want to push them to that limit. So I decided to nix that idea.

[scooter99]

Now it's time to put this together in a neat little box! Couple of relays.

Some CA glue

And we have an instant bond!

Let's get to soldering. Started off with the power wire. The green piece is half of a 2 part wiring system for screw down terminals. You'll see it later on.

Got a fuse in there. 15a, should be fine for one, but not sure if two actuators will work with that. I'm going to have to see. I'm planning to run two actuators off this one box. If it doesn't work, I'll obviously have to make a second box.

Got the power and ground runs done now.

Then the up and down wires. One orange one purple. These are from the switches into the relays.

Then I did the switched out of the relays which will go to the actuators. Again there are 4 terminals, 2 up's, and 2 down's. In case you're not able to follow it.

Then I got the dremel out and cut a nice little slot for the terminal.

And this is how it'll sit. Fits nice and snug. SNUG is the operative word here. It's a good tight fit!!

But never the less, let's get some ca glue in there to hold it in place.

Then CA glue on the terminal to hold it in place. There is the other side that plugs into it. Now I can wire this up, off the box, and then plug it in if I want to. Depending on space. It clips right on nice and tight.

Also did the inside. It's not going anywhere. Overkill much?!?!

[scooter99]

There is the terminal on. Ready to be wired up!

Nice little package.

Let's get to work on the switches. This is the existing radio dash kit. You see that wasted pocket under the head unit? Yeah we're gonna make good use of that space.

First I had to strip the dash apart, this is always fun.

Then get the pocket out. Seemed like a lot of work just to remove that thing. But it had to be done for the wiring too.

Now tape up where i want to cut so I could draw a straight line. Then go to work with the air saw.

Viola!!! Half the pocket it used to be!

Next it was time to use the jig saw and mdf.

Made a drawing of the inside frame of the pocket.

and cut it out.

I used the air sander to sand down the rough edges a bit. It fit pretty good for not much effort.

I marked out my button placement.

and drilled it out.

[scooter99]

I'm already liking what i see. 5 switches, from left to right, on/off Main, momentary trunk pop, momentary up button, momentary down button, and then on/off eld bypass.

Mixed a couple rounds of body filler. I only took pics of the first one though. OOPS.

Some sanding. and now it's time to prime it.

Rust-oleum filler primer. Love this stuff!!!

First coat on.

While that dried I got the wires cut and ready for prepping the switches.

I soldered each wire to the proper pin.

Then used heat shrink to protect each one.

After a second coat of primer, it was time to get some black on it. This is primer plus paint flat black.

2nd coat of primer ready for the black.

Coat 1. It's actually inside because it was cold outside, and I set up a little heater, which you can't really see in the top of the pic, and I set it like this so the heat would go around it and not directly beat on it to help dry. Worked out nicely!

Got all my switches soldered up and ready to wire when the panel is done.

I also made a couple of wire harnesses. This one is for the front to back run for the trunk actuator.

Twisted it up with the drill. In case you don't know how to do this, it's pretty simple and cleans things up nicely. If you have a vise, like in the previous pic, (if not you can use anything to hold the wires in one place and tight, i've had my daughter hold it before) put the wires in there, and then the other end in the drill and tighten the chuck down. Walk back till the wires are taught, and pull the trigger. Don't think it matters the direction of the drill (forward or reverse). It makes this.

But I wanted more, so I flexed and heat shrinked it too.

[scooter99]

Then I made the harness for the eld bypass.

Harnesses, switches, and panel are ready to go.

Switches just sitting in there. I really liked how the black come out, but I decided to clear coat it with some matte clear coat, and effed it up.

So, carbon fiber vinyl it is!

Not as clean as the black to me, but I like it still. And it's a little rough in this picture, but in the end it'll clean up well.

I used a 19mm deep socket to get the switch nuts tight.

With all the switches in, it's time to wire them up.

Bypass with molex connector on the harness.

All the other wires were soldered together and ready for a second molex connector.

Time to install it.

For the actuator, I decided to use some 1/4x20 threaded rod and some nuts and washers and nylon locking nuts.

On the arm

[scooter99]

Nut on both sides tightened up.

Then washer, actuator arm, another washer, and a nylon locking nut. This allows for the arm to move without moving the rod or the nuts and not loosen things up.

For the mount to the fender well, I needed something stronger. I used a piece of 1/2" thick by 1" aluminum stock.

marked and drilled out a few holes

Then tapped the center hole with a 1/4x20 tap.

Using threaded rivnuts I screwed it in place.

Not a great picture, but it was basically the same process as the trunk arm. Nut to lock it in place to the aluminum stock, then another nut, for spacing, then a washer, the actuator, another washer, and then a nylon locking nut.

Then I got the relay box in place and wired it up.

Put the dash back together, and fired it up. It's alive!!!! That's not really the time and date btw. I just plugged it back in and I still needed to set it.

I couldn't find the trunk popping wire for the alarm, so for now I'll have to do it this way, with the trunk pop lever.

Pushing the up button

It goes up

Pushing the down button, and it goes down. Forgot the down pic but you get the idea.

[scooter99]

Put the cap on the relay box and we're good.

Daytime shots. Off

and with it on. I have 2 more 10" actuators on the way that are both 150lb capacity. This is 35 lbs. I'll swap this one out with one of those and add a second one to the other side. Then the 35lb one will go on the seat back. In the meantime I need to find that trunk pop wire. BUT IT WORKS!!

And a little video!

Lot's more to come soon! Thanks for checking it out!!

[Leo1103]

That relay box is amazing! Glad you figured out the switches man!